2023-03-29: That Heavenly Relic Lysippus’ Hercules was melted for its bronze; so was Bellerophon on his flying horse; the Servant of …
2023-03-28: The People From the Sky He learned to communicate with them “either by speech or signs,” but no matter what …
2023-03-28: I’m enjoying Yo-Yo Ma’s “Our Common Nature” playlist on Apple Music …
2023-03-27: These arches likely don’t support the weight above them, since they are made of small plaster …
2023-03-26: 🥤 Erasing coffee-cup stains from your manuscript is only a swipe away with Ubik. Removes ink, too. 🔸
2023-03-26: The idea of a vampire was to me absurd. Such things do not happen in criminal practice in England. …
2023-03-25: The spice must flow. 📷 Photo Challenge: Spice. #mbmar
2023-03-25: What Cook Noticed In his voyages across the Pacific, Cook had noticed that as far east as Easter Island and as far …
2023-03-24: The Unwritten Rule The initial reactions of both leaders had been bellicose. Kennedy had favored an air strike; …
2023-03-23: His most detested vice was the lie, maybe because with the help of the mathematical science he knew …
2023-03-23: 📷 Photo Challenge: Chance. #mbmar
2023-03-21: Tiny print outside a camera store that closed decades ago reveals a bygone world. This remains on …
2023-03-19: 🥤 Disengage from timelapsed trendspreak. Rotoscope your verbcabulary with Ubik. Now in new dissolve …
2023-03-19: The Blackwing Volume 1138 pencil next to my copy of the novelization of the movie THX-1138, by Ben …
2023-03-18: 📷 Photo Challenge: Portico #mbmar
2023-03-18: Versus — Not Verse — Not Even Viz Let’s go back to pronouncing “vs.” properly. The abbreviation “vs.” is …
2023-03-17: A Hidden Prince Whether Oxford was born in September or October 1548 to Princess Elizabeth by Thomas Seymour, or in …
2023-03-17: “By the dawn’s early light.” Fort McHenry, Flag Day, 2008. (The flag measures 30 …
2023-03-16: The road goes ever onward. 📷 Photo Challenge: Road. #mbmar
2023-03-15: It took patience to get this shot because clouds kept obscuring the sun (the real one, not the mural …
2023-03-14: 📷 Photo Challenge: Horizon. #mbmar
2023-03-13: 📷 Photo Challenge: Connection. #mbmar
2023-03-12: Rewrite, yes, but don’t stop to rewrite.
2023-03-12: 📷 Photo Challenge: Shiny. #mbmar
2023-03-12: Symptomatic of the Dysfunction It is symptomatic of the dysfunction within the White House that a break-in Nixon explicitly ordered …
2023-03-11: 📷 Photo Challenge: Gimcrack. #mbmar
2023-03-11: A Special Navigation Helmet In spite of these obvious difficulties, Galileo had designed a special navigation helmet for finding …
2023-03-10: Currently reading: Wolves by Simon Ings 📚 Not sure about this one, but didn’t want to leave …
2023-03-10: Firing a cannon on the U.S.S. Constellation follows strict forms of procedure. 📷 Photo Challenge: …
2023-03-10: A Running Narrative in the Perfect Tense INTERVIEWER: Do you map out your way with any kind of outline or notes before you begin? BALLARD: …
2023-03-09: All these squiggles together emphasize that this mall was built in the ‘80s. 📷 Photo …
2023-03-09: A Rampage Through the Inner Solar System Jupiter is not just the oldest planet orbiting the sun—it’s also the largest. So when the young gas …
2023-03-08: 📷 Photo Challenge: Walk. #mbmar
2023-03-07: Speaking of the Great Maryland Baking Show… 📷 Photo Challenge: Whole. #mbmar
2023-03-06: Watching “Great British Baking Show” to distract from bad back pain. Maybe hot chocolate …
2023-03-06: Spring is coming. Soon the steampunk will begin to sprout. 📷 Photo Challenge: Engineering. #mbmar
2023-03-05: The Eye-Aching Glimmer INTERVIEWER: What are your daily working habits like? BALLARD: Every day, five days a week. Longhand …
2023-03-05: 📷 Photo Challenge: Tile. #mbmar
2023-03-04: Costume as a Visual Art There were outfits of cloth of gold, Florentine velvet, silver tissue, damask and satin, mantles …
2023-03-02: 📷 Photo Challenge: Weather. #mbmar
2023-03-01: 📷 Photo Challenge: Secure. #mbmar
2023-02-28: An Alternate History Charles Thomson was uniquely qualified to write a history of his times. As secretary of the …
2023-02-27: 🎨 Reading about Robert Motherwell’s painting Reconciliation Elegy, which is in the National …
2023-02-27: Jefferson on Washington To Jefferson, Washington had been a grand, often distant figure whose grace and aloofness made him a …
2023-02-26: To Acquire a Quire “In the Middle Ages, a quire (also called a ‘gathering’) was most often formed of …
2023-02-25: John Steinbeck Must Have Used a Selectric In this interview with John Steinbeck’s son Thomas conducted by the makers of Blackwing …
2023-02-24: Filled a stub nib TWSBI Eco Yellow with Noodler’s Baltimore Canyon Blue, as you do.
2023-02-24: A State of Chronic Edginess Writing a novel is one of those modern rites of passage, I think, that lead us from an innocent …
2023-02-23: The Size of the World Ptolemy’s omissions inadvertently encouraged exploration because he made the world seem smaller and …
2023-02-22: Oh! Double 0 ... Seven! A man whom Elizabeth called “my philosopher,” [John] Dee inspired the character of …
2023-02-22: A Forked Fork In 1004, a Byzantine aristocrat named Maria sparked enormous interest in Venice by eating with an …
2023-02-21: Adventures Were What They Were Being Protected From Heinlein always had a hard time coming up with ideas for these boys’ books. He had to invent …
2023-02-20: Finished reading: The Smoke by Simon Ings 📚 Nice to read something that has a style to it again. …
2023-02-19: Incoming Transmission: Yog-sothoth Incoming transmission: Yog-sothoth by Cryo Chamber Collaboration From Bandcamp: “A 2 hour …
2023-02-19: Looks like Markdown blockquotes get an extra set of quotation marks when put through ActivityPub …
2023-02-18: “To me, in order to make a good American pie you almost have to make it British.” — …
2023-02-18: The Essential Features of the Modern Revolt The ballet contains and illustrates many of the essential features of the modern revolt: the overt …
2023-02-17: Finished reading: Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution (The American Revolution Series) by …
2023-02-17: Carneys, Causeways, and Herepaths Pilgrim paths, green roads, drove roads, corpse roads, trods, leys, dykes, drongs, sarns, snickets — …
2023-02-16: Incoming Transmission: Teliffusion Incoming transmission: Teliffusion by Concretism. From Bandcamp: “‘The album is an …
2023-02-15: Be Strong and Courageous On a walk I stumbled upon a sign — a placard, a painting — facing outward in a second-story window …
2023-02-14: Incoming Transmission: Interim Report, March 1979 Incoming transmission: Interim Report, March 1979 by Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan. …
2023-02-13: Incoming Transmission: For Concrete and Country Incoming transmission: For Concrete and Country by Concretism. From Bandcamp: “This album …
2023-02-12: Giving up on this “Troy” series after 20 minutes. Nice cinematography and constant sun …
2023-02-12: Graphic Design Kamishibai Discovered through John Coulthart’s feuilleton blog, this post from Spoon & Tamago about a …
2023-02-11: Between East and West. 2010.
2023-02-10: Can’t believe I successfully set up GitHub to post the things using the GitHub thing. Still …
2023-02-04: Station Break
2023-01-26: Revisiting this, written by Fritz Lang’s wife concurrently with the making of the film. 1975 …
2023-01-26: The lads. (Privateer Festival, Baltimore, 2018)
2023-01-23: The Heavy Dark. Baltimore, 2012.
2023-01-19: Edgar Allan Poe, Jan. 19, 1809 to Oct. 7, 1849. Marker at original burial site. Westminster Hall, …
2023-01-06: Skipping through some Twelfth Night on or around Twelfth Night. I like the sun described as …
2022-12-31: ✅ Vow to never open a GitHub account because you don’t need one and you’re not a …
2022-12-25: Buon Natale 🎄 🇮🇹
2022-12-11: Munch. East Wing, 2010.
2022-12-10: East Wing, 2010.
2022-12-09: Shards. East Wing, 2010.
2022-12-05: East Wing, 2010
2022-12-04: National Gallery of Art, between the wings, 2010
2022-11-30: {Signal Station Identification: I wasn’t finished with what I started for mbnov so I’ve …
2022-11-30: The Signal Station Below are my posts for Micro.blog’s Microblogvember challenge, from first to last. For the …
2022-11-30: A mirror. An atmospheric effect. Water droplets coalescing a rainbow. But it was real. We were ten …
2022-11-29: Four people under that sail. One with a lantern jaw. One with green eyes (or one blue). And one no …
2022-11-28: The wind shifted and trended west, and what was under the sail burst out of the clouds. I saw the …
2022-11-27: I didn’t know Davies’ motivation in bringing us to this pass. Cloud curdled under the …
2022-11-26: When it came my time to work the sheet I yanked the boom to the other side. I had to change the …
2022-11-25: It was a ritual by now, how we took turns working the sail. Then Davies instructed us how we were …
2022-11-24: Four miles away. If I was to retain my sanity I could not look down. So I looked at Fane, notable …
2022-11-23: “Grond, they called it.” (2009)
2022-11-23: The sail approached. Like I said before. Like you needed an update. But for one glorious moment in …
2022-11-22: The edge of the sail grazed my cheek; the cold and the wind made it a knife. All four of us wrestled …
2022-11-21: Ice glazed the railing. The wind was brittle. My God, why the roof? Ainsforth and Fane looked …
2022-11-20: The “Farewell”
2022-11-20: I’ve been to the Grand Canyon. That titanic space is something felt in your chest more than …
2022-11-19: Westminster Hall, Baltimore, 2009
2022-11-19: “Where are you going?” Up the clanging stairs, a spin of the wheel, the whoosh of air, …
2022-11-18: Inflatable SLS. (National Mall, Apollo 50th, July 20, 2019.)
2022-11-18: Unfazed, Davies moved past me with a smile. “Don’t you tire of all this?” I asked. …
2022-11-17: Time Travelers. (Westminster Hall, Baltimore, 2009. Edgar Allan Poe funeral re-enactment.)
2022-11-17: All this sailcloth came out of a barrel stamped with that company name: Neverland. I was going to …
2022-11-16: I was furious. “The pipegyros. The steamcurloes. The semiirons. Lighting the beacon in the …
2022-11-16: Let’s go, Artemis. (July 20, 2019, National Air and Space Museum, Apollo 50th celebration. …
2022-11-15: A spiral staircase leads to the main storage bin. That is where I found him, among verdigrised …
2022-11-14: Was the Cheshire Cat Schrödinger’s cat before Schrödinger had a cat?
2022-11-14: Westminster Hall, Baltimore, 2009
2022-11-14: Davies knew. Davies knew. I stormed through to look for him. Through some impossible how the Signal …
2022-11-13: My eyes had to adjust, but not from light. The concrete 30 feet below was shadowed in blue. Cola …
2022-11-12: Westminster Hall, Baltimore, 2009
2022-11-12: “Down the hatch.” The wind blew me to one side. Dizziness took me. The world shot …
2022-11-11: “You just have to fake it until you bake it.” — “The Great British Baking …
2022-11-11: I must have made quite the display. I had Ainsforth tie the rope around me before going down the …
2022-11-10: The Signal Station is built like a submarine. There are pipes, circular doors, and wheels for …
2022-11-09: I was the only one who wasn’t certain. So they all stared at me as if to say, “Well, go …
2022-11-08: I wish we hadn’t reached a consensus. I would prefer to blame Davies as delusional. Ainsforth …
2022-11-07: The fog surrounding the Signal Station plays tricks. I had already dismissed the double blue flames, …
2022-11-06: I woke up at 1 a.m. thinking it was Monday and got to enjoy the realization that it was Sunday. Then …
2022-11-06: The sail approaches, miles away, though visible through the fog. I have not mentioned the fog. It …
2022-11-05: Davies (it’s always Davies) says that there is a country of origin stamped in blue ink on the …
2022-11-04: The only airdrop we’ve had to the Signal Station in the past 60 days was comprised of 37 …
2022-11-03: The sail approached. Davies said we should signal it. He jumped to the beacon before I could stop …
2022-11-02: “Please don’t cry in the chocolate.” — “The Great British Baking …
2022-11-02: The circumflex window of the Signal Station was a more prominent feature than the beacon itself. …
2022-11-01: The figure in the vestibule of the Signal Station is unrecognizable. The verdigris has grown thick. …
2022-11-01: The Signal Station
2022-10-31: Prince: Farewell, Allhallown summer. — Henry IV, Part I Happy Allhallown Eve. 🎃
2022-10-27: Beethoven would be totally into air guitar. Not sure about Mozart.
2022-10-22: “He started writing The Star Lummox [The Star Beast] on August 26…. He was able, even …
2022-10-21: “Heinlein was able to start Starman Jones on February 2, 1953, and finish up on February 28, …
2022-10-21: I don’t own a laptop, but I assume the Micro.blog sticker doesn’t mind sharing a …
2022-10-21: “Just a hippie gypsy.” — The Who. And the self-description on my résumé.
2022-10-16: The lawyers to The Signal Station travel in their own railcar.
2022-10-15: “So Athena vowed and under her feet fastened the supple sandals, ever-glowing gold, that wing …
2022-10-12: Prince: Farewell, latter spring. Farewell, Allhallown summer. — Henry IV, Part I
2022-10-11: Falstaff: ‘Sblood, I am as melancholy as a gib cat or a lugged bear. … Prince: What …
2022-10-09: In the mall parking lot, though it’s cloudy, you can catch someone’s shadow in a puddle …
2022-10-08: Cold morning and grey in the mall parking lot. Others are there, sitting in their trucks or …
2022-10-08: Heinlein wrote from “can” to “can’t” each day. There was no try.
2022-10-07: Butterflies Are Free. 1972. Goldie Hawn and Edward Albert. Rating: Many popcorns. 🍿 🎟
2022-10-06: Truly, living in a library, a museum or a mall would be bliss for me.
2022-10-06: Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore will be renovated to include apartments. I want to live there. …
2022-10-05: Have been watching so much “Great British Baking Show” I now say “maths” …
2022-10-05: I can jump out of the cupboard to surprise Aristotle but then I would still have to come up with a …
2022-10-05: “All birds are dinosaurs,” Dr. Holtz always said in his Balticon presentations. I …
2022-10-04: In the mall there’s a wooden sculpture of the word “Wish” with a handle in its …
2022-10-03: Tinnitus from the sirens because you chose to walk and their volume is set for people in cars with …
2022-10-02: Moby-Dick as first and still modern novel, with Gibsonian superspecificity and the minute detail of …
2022-10-02: In a Philip K. Dickian scenario we could all become Stilpo.
2022-10-02: But what if Stilpo turns out to be Big Brother? One must first find out who Stilpo is in order to be …
2022-10-02: 🎼 And do you think you’ve made the right decision this time?” — The Smiths
2022-10-01: I’m with Stilpo too, Zeno.
2022-10-01: It’s like something out of Philip K. Dick: the overarching personality that everyone is …
2022-09-30: I’m With Stilpo: The Musical
2022-09-30: “If you lay violent hands on me, you’ll have my body, but my mind will remain with …
2022-09-23: “Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day stands tiptoe on the misty mountain …
2022-09-22: “How bloodily the sun begins to peer above yon bulky hill. The day looks pale at his …
2022-09-20: “What, Hal, how now, mad wag?” — Henry IV, Part I
2022-09-18: Finished reading: Service of All the Dead by Colin Dexter 📚 Probably not going to continue with …
2022-09-16: The telegraphickers at The Signal Station sometimes tap out their codes in metal.
2022-09-14: I earned two demerits on my nerd card yesterday. I forgot it was “Space: 1999” day until someone …
2022-09-13: “I’m shocked – shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.” …
2022-09-13: Learned: When using the Dataview plugin in Obsidian, do not use a field name that begins with …
2022-09-12: “You were just let down by time.” — “The Great British Baking Show”
2022-09-06: Falstaff: Why, there is it: come sing me a bawdy song; make me merry. I was as virtuously given as a …
2022-09-06: I wish some Elizabethan terms found in Shakespeare were still around. I’d find it useful to …
2022-09-04: It’s heartening to hear newscasters call Artemis “NASA’s moon rocket.” 🚀
2022-08-11: Retro 51 Maryland flag pen from Penquisition, with matching pen sleeve by Rickshaw Bags.
2022-07-31: Also serving Magritte Green Apples and Pollock Spaghetti.
2022-07-31: Saw a sign for Saval Deli and it made me think of Salvador Dali. Now I want to open a shop called …
2022-07-28: “And soon I shall have understanding of video cassette recorders and car telephones. And when …
2022-07-28: In memory. Actor David Warner, 1941 – 2022.
2022-07-14: ”… and dozens of others who made art from history’s trash and yoked together …
2022-04-28: Signal Station Waiting Room
2022-04-10: “We taught you, because you already knew.” — Master Kan, “Kung Fu”
2022-04-07: Finished reading: One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear …
2022-02-21: Signal Station Pressure Mount
2022-02-04: “That which you do not know, the doing will quickly teach you.” — Master Po, …
2022-02-01: Advice from The Signal Station
2022-01-25: Signal Station Main Dispatch
2022-01-05: Signal Station Telegraphicker
2021-12-03: Hemingway said, “… stop while you are going good.” I understand this. Thelonius …
2021-12-02: New boxes from Musgrave Pencil. These pencils used to be packaged in plastic bags. ✏ Shiny.
2021-11-27: Local store low on spices. Whatever happened to “the spice must flow”?
2021-11-24: Radio Free Signal Station
2021-11-18: “Fear is the enemy…. Do what must be done with a docile heart.” – Master …
2021-11-10: “Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with …
2021-10-30: 📷 October Photo Challenge Day 30: Red
2021-10-29: Discovered while trying to find screenshot of planet Meta signal: Big Finish is now making audio …
2021-10-29: In the premiere episode of “Space: 1999” (1974), a probe has been sent to the rogue …
2021-10-29: “There are no lines in the real world, so don’t paint them.” — Leonardo da Vinci
2021-10-28: 📷 October Photo Challenge Day 28: Underneath
2021-10-27: 📷 October Photo Challenge Day 27: Chaos. Perhaps more chaos theory.
2021-10-26: Poe Country
2021-10-25: 📷 October Photo Challenge Day 25: Gravity. The Moon’s gravity is one-sixth that of Earth.
2021-10-25: Ephemerama A prolonged display or exhibition of things that last only a short time.
2021-10-24: 📷 October Photo Challenge Day 24: Connection. There are many connections behind the engine of a …
2021-10-23: Signal Station Identification
2021-10-21: 📷 October Photo Challenge Day 21: Space. Space swag gathered at the Apollo 50th Festival celebrating …
2021-10-21: I liked coming across this video interview with Roald Dahl from the 1980s. I’d read that he …
2021-10-20: 📷 October Photo Challenge Day 20: Sports. One can always hope for another. 🏈 🟪
2021-10-17: First day it’s felt like fall.
2021-10-17: 📷 October Photo Challenge Day 17: Compass. One of some notebooks I’ve made for myself. Meant …
2021-10-16: 📷 October Photo Challenge Day 16: Rotation
2021-10-12: 📷 October Photo Challenge Day 12: Legend
2021-10-12: “Don’t break the chain!” – Jerry Seinfeld, on writing every day 📝
2021-10-11: 📷 October Photo Challenge Day 11: Hygge. “Dinner over, we produced a bundle of pens, a …
2021-10-10: 📷 October Photo Challenge Day 10: Bridges. Still unpainted, a bridge I made with plaster bricks cast …
2021-10-07: "You don't seem to be worrying too much about what will happen." "If I worry, will the future …
2021-10-05: 📷 October Photo Challenge Day 5: Toy. Once we’re past a certain age, we’re made to call them …
2021-10-03: 📷 October Photo Challenge Day 3: Majority
2021-10-02: 📷 October Photo Challenge Day 2: Dark
2021-10-01: “A shock of hair.” “A mop of hair.” Avoid cliché, which in itself is a …
2021-09-26: Oh, my … Ravens! 🏈 🟪 Longest field goal in NFL history.
2021-09-23: All the times I should have used the I Ching.
2021-09-20: Watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. 🎟 🍿 When Sean Connery and Denholm Elliot’s …
2021-09-18: The Signal Station (Taken 2012)
2021-09-06: Use a pencil, he said. Use a pencil. I am, sir. I am. And Beethoven used carpenters’ pencils, …
2021-09-01: Watched Juggernaut for the zillionth time. A classic thriller and not as recognized as it should be. …
2021-08-26: Barnabas offering a glass of Amontillado to Peter in the old house is a nice touch. (Rewatching some …
2021-08-22: Do as much in camera as you can. It will save time later in the darkroom. 📝
2021-08-19: More than pleased to discover that the e-book ISBN for Logan’s Run contains the numbers …
2021-08-13: “It’s really important to keep in mind who you are now because people are always …
2021-08-12: “The demands on a Vulcan’s character are extraordinarily difficult. Do not mistake …
2021-08-11: Recently listened to this fantastic performance of Beowulf by Julian Glover. He even breaks out into …
2021-08-04: J.M.W. Turner, “Sunrise With Sea Monsters” (unfinished, ca. 1845)